Rest if you must.

Sitting at the rear of an exhausted ambulance, whilst recuperating from a hectic ambulance call, I study the evening skies which shower the fire station with their awesome flaxen rays. I soak up nature's refreshing bounty(even in the sweaty uniform and the foul wake of ambulance exhaust) and took my mind off the job.A hiatus. A much needed one.

An eye opener, indeed.

Spending a night in Paya Lebar FS is certainly different from spending a night anywhere. One moment, you could find yourself warmly cuddled up in rolls of inviting white blankets in the air-conditioned paramedics office and the next, you could just be out of such comfort, collecting a call text and making a frantic beeline into your assigned alpha, upon the authoritative siren of an ambulance informing the whole firestation that someone out there is in need of medical attention.

It was 6 am in the freezing morning when such a siren went off, interrupting our slumber. Pulling my body lazily out of those thick blankets, I made a quick trip to the watchroom where a noisy printer cranked out a pink slip which bore the call text. "Case of China man colliding into a lorry", it read. I handed it over to the paramedic(who takes up the front seat with the driver) and settled onto the back seat of the ambulance. We arrived at the accident scene and we were greeted by a tanned-looking china man who had made a seat out of the pavement. Droplets of blood riddled the side of the road, where he sat, his face taut with pain. His wounds were still oozing out blood. His upper lip was torn, a bad bulging bruise had emerged from his temple and his nose, obviously crooked, was broken as a result of the impact. Judging from the injuries he sustained, anyone could tell, he had landed face-first into the obsidian granite road. Bystanders watched as if enjoying a thriller as the other medic and I tended to his facial wounds. My paramedic questioned him on how he was afflicted, enlisting the help of a chinese-speaking singapore to translate for him. We were after all attending to a china man. Well, this isn't the worst case yet. I hope to see more tomorrow!!

Hello Paya Lebar FS

Yes, yes. I know full well it has been aeons since I submitted an entry. Let me update you on my latest exploits. Not long back, I left "instructor-ship" to serve as an operational personnel running the ambulance("alpha" was the name given to denote it). You may want to pry further and enquire for the reasons behind the transfer but let's just leave the juicy details for later, shall we? It was yesterday, when I met rota 4 . Ok, now what the hell is a rota? It just refers to a group of people working in the same shift. Different shifts and you'll notice different rotas at work. The paramedics office hides almost unnoticingly beside a walkway. Now this is just like a paramedics' "crib" where all the medics and paramedics hang out when the firestation is all quiet and no calls interrupt us. Together with another junior medic, I was led to that room which didn't reveal much about it's interior from the outside. The sergeant firefighter led us to the paramedic office, where we were greeted by our future colleagues. The raillery inside somehow seemed to reveal the warm and fun working environment. It was not long before we settled admin matters such as declaring our biography and recieving a significant orientation of the ambulance.Again. Guided by a senior medic(whose ORD is drawing near), we tried our hand on the latest black inferno stretcher which was considerbly more cumbersome to carry but, judging from the designs, it's definitely more sturdy to manoeuvre the heavy patients. This is definitely something new, as compared to the orange one, the medics trainees were taught to use. We were also introduced to The 3 in 1. This refers to the lifepack(the paramedics' baby), the, trauma bag(for cases that involve haemorrhages or bleeding) and the flynn bad or what some paramedics, might call oxygen resuscitator kit. Oh well, that last one just provides apt ventilation to patients who need them. There are still loads more to learn about the ambulance. Tonight would mark the start of my first night shift. All the best to me! Hope to attend a myriad of weird cases!